Wednesday 28 July 2010

Beezumph snaps 2)

Here's Gary Nixon, Grand National Champion in '67 and '68 and all round flattrack and roadrace legend at this year's TR3OC Beezumph. The 'bike is Steve Cook's Redline T140. The frame and motor may have history with Mike Kidd. The period style paint scheme is Steve's own. I particularly like the joke shop eyeball used as the tank mount bung.Redline Engineering were an offshoot and competitor of Trackmaster, set-up by Lynn Kastan who used to weld for them. He went on to achieve fame and fortune making BMX bicycle frames. On Trackmaster oilers, the top tube oil tank runs from the steering head to the swingarm pivot. On the Redline frame, the tank tube runs from the steering head to the seat rails. The Redline has a rectangular section swingarm whereas Trackmaster used round tube.
Gary didn't ride due to the impact of advancing years upon his old injuries. However, he aided Don Emde to give a fascinating talk, illustrated by some great period photos, about the Trident / Rocket triples raced on the dirt (I'll try and persuade him to contribute the material to a Sideburn article).Don took to the Anglesey track riding Rob North's ex-Dick Mann North "Lowboy" framed '72 Daytona bike which Rob brought with him from the US for the event. The photos show Rob examining it after an outing in Don's hands. It's original even down to dirty marks, a cracked windshield and fairing damage, done when Dick came unstuck on some oil. Rob's afraid to loan it to the AMA museum in case they clean it!!!!Bye for now Alastair McQ

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

man alive, look at them exhausts!!!.
at least after theyve sent your hearing south, you can take em off and use em as ear trumpets!!.
bet you could hear them from the top of snowdon!.
lovely.